It's Official...

We're building a house! We started the process about a month ago and we finally signed the papers today. We are hoping they will break ground by the end of October and we will be in by March 1st. Our lot is in a neighborhood in Chanhassen. Here is the story...

We have been wanting to move out of our Townhouse for awhile because we are busting at the seams! However, with the way the market is, there is no way we could sell our house and break even. We would have to write a big check to get out of it. So we decided to rent it out. Well, it just so happened, that our neighbors are currently renting their townhouse and they have to be out by Jan.1st. They were looking for a place to move and we said, why don't you just move next door into our house? So they are going to rent our place which means that we needed to find a place. We started looking with a realtor in Eden Prairie and Chanhassen but didn't find anything we were in love with. We found one house in Chanhassen that we liked and were thinking of putting an offer on, but when we got to the open house to look at it, the realtor informed us that it sold the night before. We decided to drive around and look at a few Parade Homes while we were out and that is when we discovered our neighborhood! We walked into the Parade Open House and Kevin and I both immediately loved everything about the it. We toured the house and as we were about to leave, the builder introduced himself to us. We told him our story and he told us that he was sitting on a few lots that he wanted to sell and that he might be able to build something in our price range. We were shocked! We knew it was a long shot so we tried not to get our hopes up. We weren't sure if we would hear from him, but later that day he called and wanted to set up a meeting to go over a few floor plans. From that day on, we have been working with him to design our house. We've had meeting after meeting to discuss floor plans, building materials, financing and all of the many decisions that go into building. We met with him again today to finalize the plans and sign the paperwork. We are very excited to say the least! We are still in the beginning stages and are feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the decisions that have yet to be made but we couldn't be happier. We love the neighborhood, there are 30 houses in the development and within those 30 houses there are 28 kids. Everyone we have met has been very friendly and when we saw one of the neighbors today, he invited us to the neighborhood progressive dinner in November. We feel very fortunate to have found this neighborhood and a builder who is willing to work with us. Here are a few pictures...

Our lot from the street view.